Comments

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  Robert Joshin Althouse October 9, 2020 13:56

  Just discovered this group and am delighted to see David translating the Tao Te Ching and to be able to get closer to the Chinese characters. Looking forward to discussion and appreciation of the Tao Te Ching. 
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  Dharmavidya April 23, 2016 15:52

  I have now brought the Tao Te Ching translation and commentary up to and including Chapter Eight
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  Dharmavidya March 6, 2016 19:37

  Thank you, Massimo. It is wonderful to have personal sharing of this kind. I have done small amounts of tai Chi at various times in my life but never gone into it in depth.
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  Massimo Tomassini March 6, 2016 19:32

  I've always been fascinated by Taoism and started practicing thai chi in 1998 with a Chinese master in Rome. I practiced very regularly up to 1996, when many things changed  in my life. I abandoned the master (after a trip to China in which I had some disagreements with him and other disciples). I kept on practicing by myself for a long time, but with increasing difficulties. I quitted when the Buddhist practice (Thich Nhath Han first, then  vipassana, in between Mahasi and A. Chah) saturated all spaces dedicated to "spirituality" (strange word) in my mind and life. I re-started thai-chi four years ago with a local teacher, in a gym very close to my house. I discovered a more plain way of practicing, much more careful than in my previous experience about the precision of the form. My teacher also teaches Kung Fu. He frequently explains the practical (for combat)  nature of all, even minimal, gestures of thai-chi. He helps us (also with exercises in couples) in understanding the reason of each movement and the need for a continuous vigilance and control of arms, legs, spine, etc.. It is not at all a war-hungry training. It's a way for looking at things as they are. I must say: for looking at what the mind is doing, at the co-relation of mind and body, at the being-there, in space and time.  I'm amazed in discovering  aspects of myself (even unpleasant and painful) whose existence was always supposed or taken for granted but never really experienced.  My phenomenological bent (recently very much grown up at the theory and research level) is very much stimulated. I think I'm approaching a position in which Tao, Dhamma and "things themselves" are increasingly converging on the basis of a very live experience (for somebody maybe trivial and "non-spiritual").

  All the above is just for sharing and explaining a bit the kind of attitude with which I'll follow the teachings on the Tao.  
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  Dharmavidya March 6, 2016 11:43

  Annie - thank you. Lots of good things here, do explore and go on adding comments. Super. Each group has a discussion forum - such as we are writing on here - but within each discussion there is a facility for adding comments and that is where most discussions evolve.
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  Dharmavidya March 6, 2016 11:41

  Massimo, i am not a Tai Chi expert, but there may well be other people on this site who know better than I.
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  Annie Parry March 4, 2016 12:49

  Hi, I'll see if this reaches you - not so skilled at putting word bites into the correct boxes, as demonstrated by my earlier comment re your poem David, which went to your daughters website..apologies will do better:)
  
  I am delighted with this arena and am experientially exploring aligned meanings within my Awakening the body teaching and practise. Great to have input and access to some scholarly minds.
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  Dharmavidya March 4, 2016 11:05

  Ah, I'm glad that this group seems to strike a chord with a number of people. I hope we can have some good discussions here. I wanted to include some Chinese wisdom on the site going beyond Buddhist sources and it did not seem to fit into the Hellenica/Pagan group so I have started this one. I want to keep the number of groups to a minimum or the site becomes difficult to find one's way around, but in this case, a new group does seem warranted. Also, there is so much in the Taoistic way of things that tallies with the atmosphere at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) where we very much take our cue from nature. We can say it is the Way of the Gods (as in Shinto) but that Way is reveals in Nature. I agree with Kaspa that there is an interesting (fascinating even) tension between these ideas and the notion of other power in Pureland Buddhism. Lots to explore and contemplate and work with.
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  Priti Vaishnav March 4, 2016 5:51

  This is going to be very useful as I have always been interested in Taoism. Thank you.
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  Massimo Tomassini March 3, 2016 23:31

  I'm interested in knowing what I do when I do thai chi